What causes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? How Can You treat PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Medication and therapy can help

The human nervous system learns well, sometimes too well. A life-threatening experience, just once, can teach your brain to be cautious about anything even remotely resembling that experience, for years.” This, says psychiatrist Jim Phelps, appears to be central in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder.

What is PTSD?Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after a person experiences a traumatic event that harmed or threatened them or a loved one, or they witness such an event. Examples include: violent assault, the death of a child, natural or manmade disasters, military combat, and automobile accidents.

“After I watched my brother get shot, I felt afraid all the time. Although he recovered, I just couldn’t seem to get over it. I had awful nightmares and memories; I’d cry and shake. Medication and therapy really helped and I am starting to feel like myself again.”

Fear, an emotion that evolved to protect us from danger, causes an automatic protective response of hormones and neurotransmitters. But for people with PTSD, that response continues to occur long after the danger has passed.

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